


In the End

by MythicalCatie



Category: Black Veil Brides
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Cancer, M/M, Sick Andy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 19:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14859123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythicalCatie/pseuds/MythicalCatie
Summary: Andy's nearing his final days. Ashley doesn't like it one bit.





	In the End

This was it and they both knew it. Andy was sick in his hospital bed, and he didn’t want to hurt Ashley by making him stay through the worst of his disease. So, this was to be the last time that they’d see each other. It was for the best, Andy said, but all it did to Ashley was give him a bad feeling through his entire being. 

They’d been laying there for hours, and Ashley refused to let go of his husband. He wanted today to last forever, for it to be stuck in a standstill so that he’d never have to leave the love of his life. But the sun was setting now, and Andy needed his rest soon. Ashley was going to have to go.

“Andrew,” he said softly, looking up at the blue-eyed man. “Please. Let me stay. I can handle you being sick. I don’t want you…” It was hard for him to even fathom, to even speak the words, and Andy knew this was why he couldn’t deal with being there when he took his last breath. “I don’t want you to have to die alone.”

“I’ll be fine, Ash,” Andy sighed, and kissed the top of the brunet’s head with his chapped, cracking lips. “My parents are gonna stay with me until… There’s nothing for you to worry about, I promise. And besides, it’s not like you’re losing me just yet.” Andy coughed, and Ashley immediately sprung up to grab a container in case blood came with it. It didn’t. This time. “I’ll still text you. I’ll still call you on the phone. It’ll be okay.”

Ashley should be the one comforting Andy, not the other way around. It wasn’t right. But he needed to hear those words more than almost anything.  _ You’re not losing me just yet. _

Ashley relaxed against Andy once again, settling in to listen to the beating of his heart. Was it morbid to want it after he was gone? 

“It’s not the same. I can’t hold your hand or hug you or kiss you that way,” Ash reminded him, and tears welled in his eyes. He tried not to focus on how their final moments together were creeping up on him, tried to make the most of them while they were there. “I love you too much to do this. Til death do us part, Andrew.  **Till death do us part.** ”

“I love you too much to let you stay,” Andy countered, and used all of the strength that he could muster to hold Ashley just a little bit tighter. “There’s just two things I want you to know, okay? So you have to listen up.” 

“Of course.”

“The first thing is that you’re not losing me, yeah? You’ll see me everywhere you go. In impossibly blue colors and KISS album covers and every godforsaken piece of Batman memorabilia on the planet. You’ll see me in roses and sunsets and all the little notes I had my dad hide around our house. And you’ll always have our pictures and our videos and our wedding tape… You have my voice and you have my pretty face and… You’re losing my physical body, yeah, but I’ll always be with you.”

Ashley vowed to himself to never forget those words. He was going to need them in a few weeks, or maybe even sooner. “How about the second thing?”

“I love you,” he admitted. “I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything before. You’ve made my life so much richer than it’d be without you, and I’m so grateful.”

* * *

 

Ashley managed to convince Andy to let him spend the night, but as soon as the sun shone through the curtains, they had to say goodbye and kiss for the last time. Ashley would try to hold onto it forever. But, walking away from the hospital and to his car, he knew what he’d remember most: that in the end, Andy had loved him enough to let him go, and even though tears poured down his face and he thought they’d never stop because of it, he was thankful that even on his deathbed, Andy had the forethought to save him. 


End file.
